In March we launched the Places API for Android and opened up a public beta program for iOS. Today, we’re very excited to announce that the Google Places API for iOS is available to all developers!
Why Places?
When’s the last time someone asked you to meet them at -33.921053, 151.257996? Never? Exactly. People think of where they are in context: what shop they’re at or what park they’re in. The Places API enables your apps to speak your users’ language, based on Google’s database of 100 million places worldwide.
Who’s Using Places?
Excited to see the Google Places API for iOS in action?
 | "Google has incredibly high up time and the highest quality of data available. Because of Google, our users can rely on Places API when requesting a ride with nearly zero down time." -- Lyft |
Lyft will be coming out soon with a new version of their iOS app that uses Google Maps and Places APIs to know where you want to be picked up and dropped off.
Lyft is a welcoming, affordable ride within minutes. Simply request and go. Lyft launched in San Francisco in June 2012 and is now in more than 65 cities across the U.S.
  | |
 | "Google Places API integrates smoothly into the PicsArt app, providing our users with all the benefits of quick and precise image geo-tagging experience." -- PicsArt |
In the next version of PicsArt, you’ll be able to simply use the place picker and the chosen location will be added to your post!
PicsArt is a full-featured photo editor app and the largest community of creatives and images, now reaching 65 million monthly active users.
  | |
Cross Platform
With this launch, all the great features of the Google Places API for Android are now also available on iOS:
- Add a place picker: a drop-in UI widget that allows your users to specify a place (see the Picsart screenshot above)
- Get the place where the device is currently located
- Show detailed place information, including the place’s name, address, phone number, website, and more
- Use autocomplete to save your users time and frustration typing out place names, by automatically completing them as they type (see the Lyft screenshot above)
- Make your app stand out by adding new places that are relevant to your users and seeing the places appear in Google's Places database
- Improve the map around you by reporting the presence of a device at a particular place.
Get Started
The Places API for iOS is available as part of the Google Maps SDK for iOS, now installable with Cocoapods! Have a go with
> pod try GoogleMaps
and play around with the “Maps SDK Demos” sample app. Then check out the developer documentation to add Places API to your iOS app.
Finally, a big thank you goes out to all the developers who helped battle-harden and test Places API for iOS during its beta run!
Posted by Jen Harrington, Product Manager, Google Maps APIs